Even before the release of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Naughty Dog made it abruptly clear to fans that this was the end of the line for protagonist Nathan Drake. However, the franchise remains incredibly popular, so few were surprised to hear that it will continue one without its former lead, starting with The Lost Legacy.

The Lost Legacy stars Chloe Frazer, the treasure hunter and thief that was introduced in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. She forms an uneasy alliance with gun-for-hire Nadine Ross, a character who will be familiar to anyone who played through A Thief's End.

"There was never any doubt in our minds that Uncharted is more than just Nathan Drake," said the director of The Lost Legacy, Kurt Margenau, in a new interview. "While Nate was the center of this series, we felt that this presented a blank slate for us to show off others that we didn't explore all that [much]."

Indeed the franchise has offered up all kinds of compelling characters over the course of the first four mainline installments. Many fans no doubt had their own ideas on who could be bumped up to the level of protagonist, ranging from Nathan's brother Sam, to his longtime collaborator Victor Sullivan.

However, the development team were confident that leaving behind the previously established main cast was the right way to go. The idea was that A Thief's End provided closure in a lot of ways, and immediately dropping those characters into a new adventure would have undone a rather satisfying conclusion.

It remains to be seen whether Chloe and Nadine are the new leading ladies of the Uncharted franchise, or whether The Lost Legacy is just a one-off. The game was originally envisaged as DLC, and has now been upgraded to a standalone release — but there's still no word on what the future holds for the series.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy launches for the PlayStation 4 on August 22, 2017.

Source: Gamespot